Archives for August 2013

Jeremiah

A song I sing to cheer up when I’m tempted to feel sorry for myself. The music exists and could be made available, supposing anyone wanted it, but it’s not in machine-readable form and would be a bother to transcribe. It’s a ghastly tune, about halfway between a polka and ‘The Volga Boatmen’.

My notes don’t include any exact dates, but I wrote this about fifteen years ago.

 

Jeremiah

The day you left me, the war broke out;
I stubbed my big toe and it made me shout.
My next door neighbour took her husband’s life;
I lost my keys and my Swiss Army knife.

Oh, the shame! Oh, the pain!
All my life running down the drain—
And then it started to rain—
And then my goldfish died.

The day you left me, the markets crashed;
I had a hangover ’cos I got smashed.
A mad assassin tried to kill the Queen;
I lost a quarter in a vending machine.

Oh, the shame! Oh, the pain!
All my life running down the drain—
And then it started to rain—
And then my goldfish died.

[Spoken over bridge:

I’ll never forget the sight of poor little Jeremiah, floating belly-up in his bowl. Why didn’t anybody tell me Ty-D-Bol is not for use in cleaning fish tanks?

I think I’m gonna sue someone.]

The day you left me, the H-bombs fell:
Five hundred million people blown to hell.
Millions are homeless ’cos their slums got sold,
And I’m bummed out because my coffee is cold.

Oh, the shame! Oh, the pain!
All my life running down the drain—
And then it started to rain—
And then my goldfish died.

Oh, the shame! Oh, the pain!
Flushing Jeremiah down the drain—
And then it started to rain—

How to prevent writing

It comes to my attention, as a difficult summer draws to an end, that altogether too many people (some of my 3.6 Loyal Readers among them — I will not hide the truth even to protect them) are still writing books, and even releasing them to the public, despite the very best efforts of the publishing industry to put a stop to this pernicious practice. It would appear that some of you out there have not yet mastered the art of not writing, and still leak wordage from time to time. Herewith, a few helpful tips gleaned from my own recent experience. If you are still writing and want to help stem the tide, here are some methods you might try:

[Read more…]

Tom Weller on Books

Books are like a magic arrow, an arrow by which poetry, literature, auto repair, indeed, all of cvltvre may soar from the minds of the artists and thinkers who created them swiftly to their final target – the remainder bin.

With books, we can travel in outer space, talk to Shakespeare, conquer the world, prop open doors and windows.

In them we can gaze on the faces, and wonder at the thoughts, of people from the remotest times, like in your high school yearbook. Through them, inhabitants of one part of the globe can understand the feelings and customs of those of another far distant, usually resulting in war. Indeed, it is just conceivable that through the unifying power of literature all peoples may yet come to live together as brothers and sisters: in continuous, squalling enmity.

—Tom Weller, Cvltvre Made Stvpid